Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet his US counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania, the Turkish presidency said on Sunday.
The talks will focus on ‘Ukraine’s position in NATO, Sweden’s NATO membership, and the delivery of F-16’ fighter jets, which Turkey hopes to secure from the United States, Erdogan’s office said.
The statement did not say when the meeting will be held.
The two-day summit starting Tuesday will be preceded by talks Monday between Erdogan and Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson, organised by NATO.
Kristersson will hope to convince Erdogan to lift Turkey’s objections to Sweden becoming the 32nd member of the US-led defence organisation.
Erdogan’s office said it was ‘not correct’ to link Turkey’s desire to acquire US fighter jets, which need congressional approval, with Sweden’s membership drive.
Biden himself linked the two issues in a call he placed to Erdogan after the Turkish leader’s May 28 re-election.
Erdogan ‘still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden, so let’s get that done,’ Biden told reporters in a press conference after the call.
Erdogan also reaffirmed his longstanding position Sunday that Sweden still needed to crack down harder on suspected Kurdish militants to win Turkey’s support.
‘Sweden has taken some steps in the right direction by making changes to its anti-terrorism legislation,’ the statement quoted him telling Biden.
But Erdogan repeated that Sweden’s decision to allow pro-Kurdish groups to stage demonstrations in Stockholm ‘nullifies’ these steps.
